Saturday, June 30, 2007

The little kids who get their daily dose of brainwashing from Hamas television have received the full blast of Hamas depravity according to the Jerusalem Post and Associated Press.

It seems that the writers of the infamous weekly children's show featuring "Farfour," the Mickey Mouse look-alike who made worldwide headlines for preaching Islamic domination and armed struggle to youngsters have run out of inspiration. In the finale of the programme, they kill off the lead character by having the rodent beaten to death by an actor posing as an Israeli official trying to buy Farfour's land. Farfour, the martyr squeaks his way through dying breaths describing the Israeli as a "terrorist" and that's followed by a eulogy delivered by the teen presenter who tells the tots that "Farfour was martyred while defending his land. He was killed by the killers of children."

This is how the elected Hamas government grooms the next generation of killers while Jimmy Carter and friends implore the world to treat them with kid gloves.

Friday, June 29, 2007

Earlier this week, the Melbourne Herald Sun published an incoherent rant from one Moammar Mashni of Australians for Palestine in which Israel was blamed for the cruel violence of the various armed factions in Gaza over the past month. The article was full of the now familiar blather which ignored the fact that Israel actually departed Gaza in 2005 leaving behind the infrastructure of a functioning society which was trashed by the locals in very quick time. Gaza is now the Middle East's version of hell for its citizens and it's administered by a pack of thugs bent on committing genocide against neighbouring Israel. Apologists for these barbarians can't help themselves but find new ways to blame Israel even when the Israelis are completely absent from the scene.

Today, a letter writer's response was published by the Herald Sun. This was her take on the situation:-

Your Say HERALD SUN ,MELBOURNE

Climate change down to Israel

MOAMMAR Mashni's article, "Gaza violence is Israel's fault'' (June26) does not go far enough. Mashni should also blame Israel for theworld's unpredictable weather, volcanic eruptions and all peopleafflicted with ingrown toenails and dandruff.

Doreen Woolf on Telegraph.co.uk takes an insightful look at the Hamas spin on the barabaric behaviour of the protagonists in the brief civil war that took place between Hamas and Fatah earlier this month and which was responsible for the deaths of many Palestinians, including the usual civilian bystanders.

Apologists for the misfeasance of Palestinian armed thugs who constantly parrot the line about Gaza being an "open air prison" should take note.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

"A great debate has already begun on the subject of who lost Gaza. Increasingly, one hears that the Israelis did, or the Americans did; that the disaster is the consequence of Israeli policies or American policies, of Israeli harshness and American indifference. It is necessary to insist, therefore, that the primary responsibility for Palestinian actions falls on Palestinians. To believe the opposite is to hold a condescending imperialist view of the Palestinians as the passive objects of others; as nothing but the wretched playthings of power, of circumstances over which they have no control; as people in some way unqualified for history. If the Hamas revolution is anything, however, it is historical action. The Palestinians in Gaza are not only suffering their history; they are also making it, and ruining it.".

"Those prospects in the near term are, in a word, null. Nothing should be done by Israel that would further foreclose the possibility of peace, but neither should Israeli policy be premised on the imminence of reconciliation. There is violence all around it. And the West Bank is not exactly calm. Hamas flourishes there, too; and so does the secular version of "the armed struggle." The government appointed by Abbas--in defiance of democratic procedure, bless him--includes many modernizers and liberalizers, most especially Salam Fayyad, the new prime minister, but they are not the uncontested heroes of their people. They are fighting the good fight, and they deserve help. But the outcome of the fight is far from clear. And the outcome will not be determined by anybody except the Palestinians themselves. For many decades, the world has clamored for Palestinian self-determination. Well, the clamor can now cease. Palestinian self-determination is here for all the world to see. So is self-determination good news or bad news? It all depends on what is determined."

It seems that Hamas has done more in recent times than just take control of the Gaza Strip. The Jerusalem Post reports that the Islamic movement has also infiltrated the British taxpayer funded BBC - Israel lets Hamas member enter Gaza.

"Defense officials told The Jerusalem Post that a week ago, a request came from the BBC asking that a Palestinian employee of the news company who is believed to be a close associate of senior Hamas officials be allowed to enter Gaza.

The employee, who lives in Gaza, had traveled to Egypt with his wife for medical reasons and the BBC told Israeli officials that they believed he could assist in negotiating Johnston's release.

The Shin Bet objected to the BBC request, saying that the employee was actually a member of Hamas, and perhaps even a terrorist operative.

In the end, however, the Defense Ministry decided to allow him to to enter Israel from Jordan via the Allenby Bridge and then to enter northern Gaza through the Erez crossing."

This raises the question as to how many other Hamas operatives have infiltrated news gathering organs around the world. In any event, whatever credibility the BBC had left has now gone down the sewer.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Today's Jerusalem Post editorial is right on the mark with regard to the heinous way in which Hamas is conducting itself over the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit. By juxtaposing his life with those of convicted terrorists, among them mass murderers, Hamas is playing a game of cynical distortion of the essence of POW-swaps. What makes the situation all the more sickening is the way in which Hamas leader Haniyeh feigns his concern for the fate of kidnapped Briton Alan Johnston to those in the media roadshow that follows him around.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Christopher Hitchens tries to explain why it's not worth wasting your time wondering why this guy is so angry?

"... the Muslim press preaches that the Jews brought down the Twin Towers, and a single citation in a British honors list will cause the Iranian state-run press to repeat its claim that the British government—along with the Israelis, of course—paid Salman Rushdie to write The Satanic Verses to begin with. Exactly how is such a mentality to be placated?"

Some of rage boy's kindred spirits even find expression from time to time in letters to the editor of the Melbourne Age and other publications.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Today's Melbourne Age editorial fairly sums up the choices facing the Palestinian people in the wake of the events of the past 10 days - Middle East peace process at the crossroads. It considers the weakness of Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas and it states plainly why the democratically elected Hamas government that "espouses violence such as suicide bombings as a legitimate tool to effect change can only ever be regarded as a pariah". Refreshingly, Israel is not the object of blame for the recent violence and bloodshed and we can be thankful for that in view of the performance of some of this newspapers reporters and commentators.

In tandem with today's editorial, the Age ran an opinion piece from Dr Colin Rubenstein, executive director of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council calling for Abbas to confront the Palestinian terror groups. Rubenstein warns that the blood-soaked Hamas victory in Gaza and the break with the Fatah-controlled West Bank profoundly "complicates Israeli-Palestinian peace prospects" especially with Hamas seeking to emulate Hizbullah's Lebanon model of a "terror statelet" that atttacks Israeli civilians from positions within its own civilian areas.

It seems that the Age is not as comfortable with this offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood whose "goal is to transform the Middle East into an Islamist caliphate, similar to that of the 7th century" as some of those who report events from the region on its behalf.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Fouad Ajami sums up the tragedy now facing the Palestinian people as the battle between Fatah and Hamas unfolds - Brothers to the Bitter End. He describes the legacy bequeathed by Yasser Arafat who refused to compromise with Israel when the opportunity presented itself as well as the part played by the Arab world in what he calls "the Palestinian ruin".

"For decades, Arab society granted the Palestinians everything and nothing at the same time. The Arab states built worlds of their own, had their own priorities, dreaded and loathed the Palestinians as outsiders and agitators, but left them to the illusion that Palestine was an all-consuming Arab concern.

"Now the Palestinians should know better."

He could have added one thing. For decades, the Palestinians hanged their hats on support from those whose primary agenda was to destroy or deligitimise the Jews and their own national aspirations. Starting with Adolph Hitler himself, who entertained the Palestinian spiritual leader during the Second World War, to the Soviets who backed the PLO to the Iranian ayatollahs and to the extreme radical right and left of the West, all of them have taken the Palestinians through a deadly dance and to a point of ruin which is what their society faces today.

Jimmy Carter, whose last year as President of the United States was characterised by his almost daily humiliation at the hands of the Iranians has finally won approval from his former nemesis through the endorsement of Iran’s hard-line government newspaper Kayhan. The paper which carries the support of Iran’s Holocaust-denying president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has endorsed Carter's strong words of support for Hamas — generally recognized as one of the world’s most murderous terrorist groups.

Carter and Ahmadinejad make good bedfellows. The two of them are both raving loonies who support the genocidal Hamas movement and both have limited credibility – they deserve each other after all these years.

For our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide-ranging and grave, so much so that it will need all the loyal efforts we can wield, to be followed by further steps and reinforced by successive battalions from the multifarious Arab and Islamic world, until the enemies are defeated and Allah’s victory prevails. …The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!

The enemies have been scheming for a long time, and they have consolidated their schemes, in order to achieve what they have achieved. They took advantage of key elements in unfolding events, and accumulated a huge and influential material wealth which they put to the service of implementing their dream. This wealth [permitted them to] take over control of the world media such as news agencies, the press, publication houses, broadcasting and the like. [They also used this] wealth to stir revolutions in various parts of the globe in order to fulfill their interests and pick the fruits. They stood behind the French and the Communist Revolutions and behind most of the revolutions we hear about here and there.

They also used the money to establish clandestine organizations which are spreading around the world, in order to destroy societies and carry out Zionist interests. Such organizations are: the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, B’nai B’rith and the like. All of them are destructive spying organizations. They also used the money to take over control of the Imperialist states and made them colonize many countries in order to exploit the wealth of those countries and spread their corruption therein. As regards local and world wars, it has come to pass and no one objects, that they stood behind World War I, so as to wipe out the Islamic Caliphate. They collected material gains and took control of many sources of wealth. They obtained the Balfour Declaration and established the League of Nations in order to rule the world by means of that organization. They also stood behind World War II, where they collected immense benefits from trading with war materials and prepared for the establishment of their state. They inspired the establishment of the United Nations and the Security Council to replace the League of Nations, in order to rule the world by their intermediary. There was no war that broke out anywhere without their fingerprints on it…

Their scheme has been laid out in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and their present [conduct] is the best proof of what is said there… Within the circle of the conflict with world Zionism, the Hamas regards itself the spearhead and the avant-garde. It joins its efforts to all those who are active on the Palestinian scene, but more steps need to be taken by the Arab and Islamic peoples and Islamic associations throughout the Arab and Islamic world in order to make possible the next round with the Jews, the merchants of war.

Incredibly, among the avant-garde in the West who join the apologists for this anti-Semitic tripe are "Jews" like Chomsky, Finkelstein and Loewenstein who should very uncomfortable hiding behind those rocks and trees with the rest of us.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Today's Australian reports that the head of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council of Australia, Kamal Mousselmani claims his entire community supports Hizbullah which it considers a "resistance group" and not a terrorist network. He also lashed the Howard Government over its support for Israel.

The nation's most senior Shia Muslim cleric is delusional. When Hizbullah attacked Israel in July 2006 killing eight and capturing two Israeli soldiers (who it still holds) while raining down missiles on populated Israeli centres there was nothing for the movement to resist. According to the United Nations Israel had left every square inch of Lebanon in May 2000. Hizbullah is an illegal armed group and, as such, it should have been disbanded or banished from Lebanon. Its leader is well known for his openly anti-Semitic statements.

Of even more concern is that fact that a man of religion should be associated with this:

"Sheik Mousselmani said all of Australia's approximately 30,000 Shi'ites were avid supporters of Hezbollah (Party of God) and haters of Israel."

The 36-year-old cleric is reported to have also said "the Shia community in Australia took its religious orders and advice from Iraq's supreme Islamic leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Husaini al-Sistani."

It's about Israeli Foreign Affairs and Vice Prime Minister Tzipi Livni's (pictured) commentary published this week in an Arab paper with broad print and Internet exposure in which she gives the Israeli response to the Arab peace initiative and provides a "specific outline for peace that presents the Israeli positions on each one of the issues addressed by the Arab initiative."

"Livni urges the international community not to compromise with violent and subversive entities and at the same time to support those committed to coexistence."

Beats what apologists for the violent Hamas movement are advocating these days.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

South Africa's Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils is a nasty piece of work who never misses an opportunity to attack Israel and its Jews. Himself a Jew by birth, Kasrils is the South African version of Antony Loewenstein except he has somehow managed to gain election to a powerful position in the South African government. That position as "Intelligence Minister" is however, considered by many as little more than somewhat oxymoronic.

A good friend of Hamas (which unashamedly says in its Charter that its aim is to destroy Israel and "kill Jews") he recently wrote an article attacking the Jewish State relying heavily on the work of Israeli historian Benny Morris.

Thanks to It’s Almost Supernatural, you can read here how Morris responds and, at the same time literally skewers the hapless Kasril who is regarded by most South African Jews as the Jewish equivalent of Uncle Tom.

"Before noon, two civilians were killed during a protest held in Gaza City under the banner 'Stop the Killing.' Some 1,000 Palestinians marched in the city, calling for an end to the fighting, but when they approached a Hamas position, militants fired at the protesters, killing two." - Haaretz Newspaper.

There’s no need to ask whether this was reported by the BBC, the Guardian or the Melbourne Age. But imagine, if the IDF did this in the heat of battle with Hamas or Fatah?

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

US President Lyndon Johnson declared: "If a single act of folly was more responsible for this explosion than any other it was the arbitrary and dangerous announced decision that the Straits of Tiran would be closed. The right of innocent, maritime passage must be preserved for all nations".

You won't see this headline in your local broadsheet but this is a taste of what is about to happen in the new Talibanised Hamastan, now occupied by Islamist thugs. Read about it here.

"Christians living in Gaza City on Monday appealed to the international community to protect them against increased attacks by Muslim extremists. Many Christians said they were prepared to leave the Gaza Strip as soon as the border crossings are reopened.

"The appeal came following a series of attacks on a Christian school and church in Gaza City over the past few days."

Monday, June 18, 2007

Ed O’Loughlin’s "analysis" in today's Melbourne Age is most illuminating. It tells us little that we don’t already know about the current situation in the Palestinian territories but it does tell us a lot about where he stands in respect of the conflict in this region.

Most readers know there is very little sympathy for Israel but O'Loughlin's look at the new Hamas ascendency and Fatah’s attempts to counter the fundamentalist movement is problematic. A reading of US-Backed Abbas risks being tagged 'Quisling' tells us that as far as O’Loughlin is concerned, Palestinians today are faced with two choices.

You either fall in behind Hamas – an organization which openly declares its intention to destroy Israel and to ethnically cleanse the region of Jews (Hamas Charter – Article 7) or alternatively, if you want to negotiate with Israel you are labelled a "Quisling".

Whichever way you look at it, it's pure Hamas propaganda. It's all about the wielding of power by the different Palestinian armed groups and not about reconciliation between the Palestinians and the Israelis. There is, of course, no room in this analysis for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

The Australian's Greg Sheridan understands the tragic consequences of recent developments in Israel/Palestine/Hamastan. He also understands Hamas and its handlers better than most journalists on the local stage. His "Hurtling into the darkness" from yesterday's edition of the national newspaper makes compelling reading and explains why the fellow pictured above symbolises such a dangerous future for the people of the region and beyond.

The Hamas takeover and current events in Israel/Palestine/Hamastan are being reported very differently in the media. We've seen Ed O’Loughlin covering the creation of Hamastan in his own inimitable and jaundiced way in the Melbourne Age but it’s even worse in Britain where the BBC’s journalists (and let’s not forget that these people single out Israel for a boycott while their own country is part of an occupying force in Iraq) and various others in the British media see Israel as the villain of the piece.

While the usual suspects screech about imaginary Israeli crimes, in reality it's Israel that is giving shelter to Palestinians fleeing from the carnage of Hamastan and it's Israel that is allowing aid supplies and food into Gaza to avoid the looming disaster brought about by the Hamas putsch. The contents of this article are a sure fire candidate to be shunned by O’Loughlin et al and will ultimately find their way into the blank pages - Dichter: Israel to allow aid supplies, food into Gaza. When it comes to stories such as this which paints Israel as the good guys and the humanitarians, the Age continues to treat its readers like mushrooms and keeps them in the dark.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

This is a scene from the House of Hamas which according to the Melbourne Age's Ed O'Loughlin won it's own Six Day War this week. The Palestinians in Gaza are now living under the occupation of a murderous regime run by thugs who make Hannibal Lechter look like a boy scout. See below for an example of the glory of O'Loughlin's Six Day warriors (if you're not squeamish!)

If you are in any doubt that reporters can project their own partisan images of the fighting elements in a conflict you only have to read this fawning piece of apologia for the thugs of Hamastan in "Fanatical last stand for boastful assassin". And then ask yourself whether this reporter has every written anything sympathetic to the victims of these boastful assassins when they were gainfully employed killing Jews which is what Hamas and Fatah was established for in the first place.

FOOTNOTE (FATAHSTAN)

Notice O'Loughlin's concluding paragraph:-

"In the fenced-off Gaza Strip, there was little chance that Mr Abbas's forces could turn their US-supplied light and medium weapons against Israel. In the West Bank, on the other hand, members of Fatah's al-Aqsa Brigades could easily turn their guns on Israeli military targets or Jewish settlers."

This is a perfect example of how O'Loughlin operates. Fatah's al-Aqsa Brigades have never shied away from claiming responsibility for attacks including suicide bombings on Israeli civilians in the past and O'Loughlin knows this well. To suggest that such groups only attack "military targets" or"Jewish settlers" is a gross distortion of the truth.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Johnny Paul of the Jerusalem Post reports that the BBC has apologised for referring to Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and promised not to repeat "the mistake," following a complaint by four British organizations.

The apology demonstrates how divorced from truth and reality the BBC's reportage has become. For the record, Jerusalem IS the capital city of Israel.

Ed O'Loughlin writes today in the Melbourne Age about the Hamas ascendency over Fatah in the current infighting in Gaza in which "more than 50 people have been killed in this fenced-off enclave of 1.3 million Palestinians." O'Loughlin also describes the nature and intensity of the fighting,

"The new outbreak of violence has already surpassed other recent flare-ups for its brutality. Fighting erupted in several hospitals, a pro-Hamas doctor was deliberately shot in a hospital, women and children were killed at close range and at least two gunmen — one from either side — were tied up and thrown from high buildings."

O'Loughlin doesn't describe this behaviour as "war crimes" but we get the drift. Astute readers of the Age would also get why Gaza is "fenced-off" (partly from Israel, partly from Egypt and then there's the Mediterranean Sea as well, where there is no fence). The reasons for the fencing-off might be even clearer had O'Loughlin seen fit to inform his readers about the foiling of a double suicide attack on Tel Aviv and Netanya, planned by the Islamic Jihad. You can read about that here.

"Wars are not always begun by shots. They are often begun by action and the action which really created the state of war in an acute sense was the imposition of the blockade. To try to murder somebody by strangulation is just as much attempted murder as if you tried to murder him by a shot, and therefore the act of strangulation was the first violent, physical act which had its part in the sequence. But also on that Monday morning we acted against the movement of forces. The Egyptian air force had been making incursions into Israel before, whether for reconnaissance or for other reasons, but there had been a pattern of encroachment. One never knows when aircraft come towards you what their intention is."

A document which we subsequently captured revealed a very instructive picture. The Egyptian command was taking a very intense interest in the disposition of Israel's very few airfields. They wanted to know where they were, and there was an operation plan, which I read to the Security Council, about how to knock them out. My impression is, therefore, that those aircraft which appeared on our radar screens that Monday morning were the start of an operation against our airfields. Whether they were to make the first reconnaissance move or the first knock-out is not relevant in this era of war. But we acted against movement towards us in the air."

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

"Armed Palestinian groups have committed serious violations of international humanitarian law during recent fighting in the Gaza Strip, in some cases amounting to war crimes, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday morning.

In internal Palestinian fighting over the last three days, both Fatah and Hamas armed forces have summarily executed captives, killed people not involved in hostilities, and engaged in gun battles with one another inside and near Palestinian hospitals."

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Asharq al-Awsat published an op-ed that is extremely rare in its honesty and criticism of the Arab world in 40 YEARS: THE REAL STIGMA. [Hat Tip: Elder of Ziyyon]

Readers should note that the mere fact that I have linked to this article does not mean I necessarily agree with everything its authors says or believes. Indeed, as Elder of Ziyyon has pointed out, the author has also succumbed to the same bigotry that he himself has revealed in his article.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Four gunmen (either from Islamic Jihad or Fatah's Al Aksa Martyrs brigade, depending on what media outlet you get your news from) posing as journalists infiltrated Israeli territory from the Kissufim border crossing between Israel and the central Gaza Strip and attacked IDF troops stationed in the area. According to the Jerusalem Post, the gunmen "were traveling in a jeep marked 'TV', in an attempt to camouflage their true intentions."

One terrorist was killed in the ensuing gun fight and the three others managed to escape. No IDF troops or Israeli civilians were wounded in the attack. The British Journalists Union will, in all likelihood, condemn the death of the "militant" as they no doubt regard him as an innocent man trying to break out of the prison created by the Israeli "occupiers" when they left Gaza in 2005. Naturally, Gaza is the only prison on earth where the prisoners are gunmen armed to the teeth and who terrorise and murder their own people on a daily basis and who bask in the admiration of journalists like the British journos and others in various parts of the earth.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Today's Australian tells how both Fatah and Hamas are using religious propaganda to target Palestinian children. Rebecca Weisser reports in Israeli watchdog finds alarming level of indoctrination in Palestine on the work of Itamar Marcus who monitors Palestinian Arabic language media and who has discovered that both groups are virtually indistinguishable.

"People assume that there is a real difference between Hamas and Fatah. There is no difference except that Hamas says the same thing in English and Arabic whereas Fatah speaks the language of compromise in English and the language of Hamas in Arabic."

"What those now denouncing the 40th anniversary of the occupation do not understand is that the Six- Day War was the most justified war Israel ever fought - because it knocked out of the Arabs' heads the idea that Israel could be destroyed by force."

Sadly, he's only half right. There's still Hamas and Hizbullah and their non-Arab puppeteers in Iran.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

"This morning, the Israel Defense Forces liberated Jerusalem. We have united Jerusalem, the divided capital of Israel. We have returned to the holiest of our holy places, never to part from it again.

To our Arab neighbors we extend, also at this hour - and with added emphasis at this hour - our hand in peace. And to our Christian and Muslim fellow citizens, we solemnly promise full religious freedom and rights. We did not come to Jerusalem for the sake of other peoples' holy places, and not to interfere with the adherents of other faiths, but in order to safeguard its entirety, and to live there together with others, in unity." - Moshe Dayan [external source here]

"Peace has now returned with our forces in control of all the city and its environs. You may rest assured that no harm whatsoever shall come to the places sacred to all religions. I have requested the Minister of Religious Affairs to get in touch with the religious leaders in the Old City in order to ensure regular contact between them and our forces, so as to make certain that the former may continue their spiritual activities unhindered." - Prime Minister Levi Eshkol[external source here]

Australian lawyer David Singer takes Fairfax to task for the publication of the errors and of the omissions of Ed O'Loughlin in a recent article entitled "War over but the fight goes on". The article, written by O'Loughlin to mark the 40th Anniversary of the Six Day War in 1967 was indeed shoddily researched and presented but we could hardly expect his editor to correct his work given that the sheer volume of errors would surely entail engaging at least one additional full time member of staff to fulfil the task properly. However, there's no doubt that readers of the Blank Pages would be in sympathy with this line:-

"Letters written to the editors requesting corrections are usually consigned to the waste paper basket and even if printed, are too late to undo the damage - allowing gross distortion of facts to be perpetuated and in many cases repeated by the same and other journalists."

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Yesterday evening was a time of reflection and remembrance for many who lived through those difficult times forty years ago when the existence of the State of Israel was threatened by Arab armies whose leaders openly declared their intentions of wiping Israel off the map. I remember 5 June 1967 with its early winter mist and the dense fog that enveloped Melbourne as the news came in that the fighting had begun.

That evening, the most incredible reports were being aired on local television and radio. Coming from the various Arab media outlets were claims that Tel Aviv and Haifa were burning, that Arab armies and airforces were wreaking havoc on Israeli villages, cities and towns in the early hours of the fighting. It was only later that we learned these reports were mere fantasy on the part of Arab propagandists aimed at denting the morale of the Israeli people and their armed forces.

Part of the fog of war.

When the truth came out that the Israelis were not only winning the war but they were in the process of wiping out the Egyptian airforce and were advancing on several fronts, the humiliation for the Arab world was even greater than it would have been but for the boasting and the lies.

Forty years later, attempts are being made to revise the history of the conflict to suit the old narrative of the rejection of the rights of Israel and its people. The lies, distortions and the obfuscation persist among the Arabs, their supporters and even some of those who believe in Israel's cause. If one reads certain media reports of the events as they were supposed to have unfolded, it's hard to not to imagine that what we lived through forty years ago was part of an elaborate but crude science fiction plot.

The same can be said of many of the consequences of the Six Day War and the burdens they created for all of the people of the region. Again, if we were to believe some modern day commentators, the dividing line between reality and truth is contained in some bizarre universe outside this solar system - a place where existential threats against the Jews coming from Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas are to be ignored as if they were make believe.

Bret Stephens looks at this phenonomenon in the Wall Street Journal and concludes that most of the conventional wisdom being put around about the Six Day War is wrong.

"The Six Day War is supposed to be the great pivot on which the modern history of the Middle East hinges, the moment the Palestinian question came into focus and Israel went from being the David to the Goliath of the conflict. It's a reading of history that has the convenience of offering a political prescription: Rewind to the status quo ante June 5, arrange a peace deal, and the problems that have arisen since more or less go away. Or so the thinking goes.

"Yet the striking fact is that all of Israel's peace agreements - with Egypt in 1979, with the Palestinians in 1993, with Jordan and Morocco in 1994 - were achieved in the wake of the war. The Jewish state had gained territory; the Arab states wanted it back. Whatever else might be said for the land-for-peace formula, it's odd that the people who are its strongest advocates are usually the same ones who bemoan the apparent completeness of Israel's victory in 1967."

Stephens navigates through the fog of this war and concludes as follows:-

"... when the sun rose on June 5, 1967, Israel was a poor, desperately vulnerable country, which threw the dice on its own survival in the most audacious military strike of the 20th century. It is infinitely richer and more powerful today, sure in its alliance with the U.S. and capable of making concessions inconceivable 40 years ago. If these are the fruits of Israel's 'Pyrrhic victory,' it needs more such of them."

Israel is not only capable of making "concessions inconceivable 40 years ago" but is also willing to do so - if only the fog that has addled the minds of some of its old enemies would ever lift long enough!

Abba Eban, Israel's Foreign Minister addresses UN Security Council: "I have just come from Jerusalem to tell the Security Council that Israel, by its independent effort and sacrifice, has passed from serious danger to successful resistance.

Two days ago Israel's condition caused much concern across the humane and friendly world. Israel had reached a sombre hour. Let me try to evoke the point at which our fortunes stood.

An army, greater than any force ever assembled in history in Sinai, had massed against Israel's southern frontier. Egypt had dismissed the United Nations forces which symbolized the international interest in the maintenance of peace in our region. Nasser had provocatively brought five infantry divisions and two armoured divisions up to our very gates; 80,000 men and 900 tanks were poised to move."full text here

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

The truth about the Six Day War is that Israel survived a war that was meant to destroy it. Those who call it a disaster or a Pyrrhic victory are grossly mistaken because they overlook the fact that Israel wasn't destroyed. This is what eminent historian Michael Oren told The Jerusalem Post this week and it is what many so-called commentators chose to ignore today in order that their own particular (and inaccurate) versions of history will fit their distorted agendas. Read what Oren told the Post here.

Alan Dershowitz has threatened to wage a legal war against British academics who seek to cut links with Israeli universities .

Mealy mouthed Israel basher Sue Blackwell, a UCU activist and member of the British Committee for Universities of Palestine, said: "This is the typical response of the Israeli lobby which will do anything to avoid debating the real issue - the 40-year occupation of Palestine."

The pathetic fool doesn't understand that Dershowitz is entitled to fight for his legal rights just as much as anyone else. If he wins in court then it will, of necessity, have involved a debate on the real issues involved with this discriminatory, immoral and evil boycott.

Seven to eight Egyptian division, two of them armoured, now deployed in Sinai: 200 tanks opposite Eilat, with the aim of cutting off the Southern Negev. Along Israel's Eastern border: 60,000 Jordanian soldiers and 300 tanks. The Jordanian army placed under Egyptian command units, as well as Iraq forces which had entered its territory. On Israel's Northern border with Syria, 50,000 Syrian soldiers dug in, fortified and protected by concrete and steel. Some 600 Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi planes ready.

War broke out on 5 June when Israel responded to the Egyptian military build-up by launching a surprise attack on Egypt’s air force, destroying most of it on the ground within a matter of hours.

That same morning, Israel sent a message to Jordan’s leader King Hussein via the US State Department, the UN and the British Foreign Office, saying that, despite the outbreak of war, it would not attack the West Bank if Jordan maintained quiet on that front.

Jordan ignored Israel’s appeal to avoid conflict.

That morning, King Hussein received false information from Egypt denying Egyptian losses and claiming a massive and successful Egyptian attack against Israel. Emboldened by this information, Jordan launched immediate multiple attacks on Israel:-

* civilian suburbs of Tel-Aviv were shelled by artillery;* Israel’s largest military airfield, Ramat David, was shelled;* Jordanian warplanes attacked the central Israeli towns of Netanya and Kfar Sava;* thousands of mortar shells rained down on West Jerusalem hitting civilian locations indiscriminately, including the Hadassah Hospital and the Mount Zion Church;* Israel’s parliament building (the Knesset) and the Prime Minister’s office, each in Israeli-controlled West Jerusalem, were targeted;* 20 Israelis died in these attacks; 1000 were wounded. 900 buildings in West Jerusalem were damaged.* “Jerusalem is totally engulfed in war…” reported the British Consul-General that morning.

All this happened before Israel reacted militarily against Jordan, or moved at all into the West Bank.

NOTE: Israel’s entry into the West Bank in June 1967 was not part of a premeditated Israeli plan for territorial expansion. Quite the opposite: Israel’s own Defence Minister instructed the army not to fight the Jordanians, or move into the West Bank. That position only changed as a result of Jordan’s disregard for Israeli appeals to avoid hostilities, and by its intensive bombardment of Israeli targets. Israel’s entry into the West Bank was an act of self-defence. Its presence there originates as a result, not of Israeli aggression, but of Jordanian aggression.

About 10,000 people filled the Albert Hall last night for a demonstration of solidarity with Israel. They heard speeches from members of the three main British parliamentary parties, from Dr. Immanuel Jakoboits, the Chief Rabbi, from Sir Barnet Janner, MP, president of the Zionist Federation, and from Mr. Donald Silk, chairman of the federation, which organized the rally. - The Times

Monday, June 04, 2007

After hearing a report on the military and political situation from the Prime Minister, the Foreign minister, the Defence Minister, the Chief of Staff and the head of military intelligence the Government ascertained that the armies of Egypt, Syria and Jordan are deployed for immediate multifront aggression, threatening the very existence of the State.

The Government resolves to take military action in order to liberate Israel from the stranglehold of aggression which is progressively being tightened around Israel.The Government authorises the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister to confirm to the General Staff of the IDF the time for action.

Members of the Cabinet will receive as soon as possible the information concerning the military operation to be carried out.

The Government charges the Foreign Minister with the task of exhausting all possibilities of political action in order to explain Israel’s stand and to obtain the support of the powers.

King Husain of Jordan today warned Britain and the United States that they stood to lose their friends in the Arab world for ever if they fell into the Zionist trap of supporting Israel in the present crisis.

"There are no words I can use to express my disappointment at the attitude that the British Government has taken with regard to the Gulf of Aqaba", he told a crowded press conference at his palace in Amman. - The Times, June 5th 1967 Nicholas Herbert, Amman "WARNING TO BRITAIN BY KING HUSAIN:Danger of losing Arab friends"

"Watching the horrible video of Alan Johnston of the BBC broadcasting Palestinian propaganda under orders from his kidnappers, I found myself asking what it would have been like had he been kidnapped by Israelis, and made to do the same thing the other way round.

"The first point is that it would never happen. There are no Israeli organisations - governmental or freelance - that would contemplate such a thing. That fact is itself significant.

"But just suppose that some fanatical Jews had grabbed Mr Johnston and forced him to spout their message, abusing his own country as he did so. What would the world have said?

"There would have been none of the caution which has characterised the response of the BBC and of the Government since Mr Johnston was abducted on March 12. The Israeli government would immediately have been condemned for its readiness to harbour terrorists or its failure to track them down."

This is not only true in Britain where certain elements of the media have adopted a feral attitude towards Israel while, at the same time turning askance at all crimes and misdemeanors of its sworn enemies but also in parts of the Australian media. The Melbourne Age provides a clear example of this sort of animus towards the Jewish State through its usual suspect Ed O'Loughlin.

O'Loughlin's carefully worded but factually sloppy piece on Saturday was a prime example of how this particular reporter panders to the Palestinian complaint that "the occupation" of Palestinian land is the root of all evil. This is done by glossing over the events that led to Israel's military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and Israel's attempts to make peace immediately after the Six Day War. He is naturally indifferent to the fact that, in the intervening decades, armed Palestinian groups, acting under the orders of elected Palestinian leaderships have done their level best to prevent the end of "the occupation" because that is not their primary aim.

O'Loughlin refuses to recognise that Israel ended its occupation of Gaza (an with it the occupation of a significant percentage of Palestinian citizens) in 2005 or the plethora of agreements breached by the Palestine Authority which, had they been honoured, would have led to an end to the "occupation" and the creation of a Palestinian State living side by side in peace with Israel.

Instead, O'Loughlin offers this to his readers:-

"… the isolated Palestinian enclave of Gaza remains, in the eyes of the United Nations, under Israeli military occupation despite the withdrawal of about 7500 Jewish settlers in 2005."

Really?

It was so nice of him not to mention that in addition to the withdrawal of the settlers in 2005, Israel also withdrew its military as well and while the soldiers and settlers were leaving, the Palestinian armed groups including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah kept firing qassam rockets - not at Israel's "military" but at Israeli homes, schools and synagogues across the border. In addition, those armed groups continued to spread hatred and incitement and threatened to kill Jews and destroy the Jewish State and smuggled weapons by water and through the border with Egypt making it necessary for Israel to exercise some control over Gaza's air space, sea access and borders. There was scant attention paid by the Palestinian leadership to developing an economy or a civil society that could live in peace with its neighbours.

Nor does O'Loughlin provide the specifics of whose opinion in the United Nations Gaza remains "under military occupation". Perhaps it’s the same people at the United Nations who run a Human Rights Commission that ignores real human rights around the world and concentrates on damning Israel at every opportunity or perhaps it's that part of the United Nations that puts a corrupt and virtually bankrupt Zimbabwe at the helm of world economic development?

O'Loughlin's main objective is to rail against the "occupation" but the sins of those among the Palestinians who act to perpetuate that "occupation" are swept under the carpet at every opportunity by this reporter who has routinely failed to report whenever they conduct themselves shamefully as the elected to govern Hamas did over the Mickey Mouse children's programme. Not a word from O'Loughlin about that or the Hamas Charter or the refusal of Hamas to negotiate with an Israel it refuses to recognise and wants to destroy.

This is one example of how the Age protects the enemies of Israel. Another is its recent shameful coverage of the discredited claims by Tim Fischer. Yesterday's Sunday Age published three letters to the editor about those claims as follows:-

Conspiracy misguided

Tim Fischer's piece "Six days of war, 40 years of secrecy" (27/5) extraordinarily fails to even mention the Israeli claims, accepted by the US, that Israeli forces attacked the USS Liberty during the 1967 Six-Day War solely because they thought the ship was Egyptian.

Transcripts released by the US National Security Agency in 2003 confirm this. As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald (11/7/2003), a US spy plane recorded a conversation by two Israeli helicopter pilots after the attack, in which the pilots, who were unaware they were being recorded, referred to the ship as Egyptian and were surprised on flying over it to discover it had an American flag. Some conspiracy theorists have since claimed that these transcripts were forged. However, Robert Nowicki, who was on the US spy plane that day, has confirmed they are accurate.

Fischer also claims the Liberty incident may have delayed a Palestinian state. Immediately after the war, Israel offered to trade captured land for peace, but was rebuffed by the 1967 Arab League with the "three no's" - no recognition, no negotiation, no peace. It is such intransigence by the Palestinian leadership and their backers that is primarily responsible for preventing the emergence of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

JAMIE HYAMS, Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council

Attack deliberate

Tim Fischer ("Six days of war, 40 years of secrecy", 27/5) is right on the money in outlining the balance of probability in the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in 1967. It has been quite obvious for years to any prepared to stomach the facts that this attack was deliberate.

Stand by now, Tim, for a two-pronged attack - one from the usual suspects in the pro-Israel lobby and the other from your former government colleagues who will denounce you for having gone native.

GREG O'CONNOR, Yeerongpilly, Qld

Just plain stupidity

Tim Fischer's article on the USS Liberty incident omits one major issue - motive. What reason did Israel have to deliberately attack a US warship?

"Hanlon's Razor", a popular adage, reminds us to "never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity". Even after 40 years, it is far more believable that Israeli forces, in the midst of a major war with their Arab neighbours, mistook the Liberty for an enemy ship.

NEIL CAMERON, Waratah

Greg O'Connor's letter merely repeated Fischer's drivel which has been plainly discredited by the facts. The Israel Lobby canard is suggestive of the writer's paranoia but the latter's publication can best be summed up by the title of Neil Cameron's letter because it was more than careless of the Age to run with a lie that was exposed some four years ago. It was just plain stupid.

In the words of Florida Judge Jay Cristol whose doctoral thesis covered the sinking of the USS Liberty and who studied the transcripts of conversations held by two Israeli Air Force helicopter pilots who were hovering over the Liberty as it was sinking as recorded by an American spy plane recorded: "It's the last piece of intelligence that remained classified, and every rational person that will read it will understand that there is no truth in these conspiracy theories against Israel. [But] those who hate Israel, who hate Jews, and those who believe in conspiracy, will not be convinced by anything."

Sunday, June 03, 2007

The New York Times reported that Britain declared the Egyptian blockade could lead to war. They further reported that four Syrian commandos had been intercepted in Israel.

MILITARY BUILD-UP:

By this time Egypt had 210,000 troops ready for deployment, with 100,000 of them with 930 tanks ready in the Sinai. They had 30 Tu-16 Russian-made bombers, which were a threat to Israel’s cities. Overall the Egyptian Air Force, by far the largest and the most modern of all the Arab air forces, consisting of about 450 combat aircraft, all Soviet-built and relatively new.

The Arabs had twice the number of tanks compared to Israel (2,330 against 1000) and far more combat aircraft too (682 compared to Israel’s 286); They had 1,845 armoured personnel carriers compared to Israel’s 1,500.

However, by fully mobilizing Israel could muster 250,000 men. Israel would need to rely on the training and motivation of this largely civilian army to counter the numeric superiority of the Arabs in manpower and weaponry.

Israel's newly-appointed Defence Minister Moshe Dayan, wishing to confine hostilities if possible to the imminent battles against Egypt, ordered the Israeli Army not to open a second front with Jordan in the West Bank in the event of war. He instructed the head of the Israeli Army Central Command: “You must not do anything to entangle Israel with the Jordanians..."

Saturday, June 02, 2007

"The United States is backing the initiative taken by Britain to rally support by maritime powers to keep the Gulf of Aqaba open to the world’s shipping, the State Department spokesman said in Washington yesterday" - The Times.

MOVE TO JERUSALEM BY PALESTINE LEADER:

Ahmed Shukairy: “We will coordinate efforts of the PLO with responsible authorities in Jordan in all fields – politically, militarily and materially…” Mr Shukairy seemed determined that the war should come soon. "It was", he said, "very probable that the Jordan army might start the battle.” It is doubtful whether his new allies would agree with this. - The Times, Nicholas Herbert, Amman.

To create the illusion that war was not near Gen Moshe Dayan had thousands of soldiers released for the weekend.

Their appearance back at their homes and on beaches and in café’s seemed to confirm that tensions were relaxing. Some reporters gave up their vigil and left Israel in search of more pressing stories.

A CHURCHILL GIVES HIS BLOOD:

Winston S. Churchill, the son of Mr. Randolph Churchill and grandson of Sir Winston Churchill, who is covering events in Israel for the “News of the World,” joined a queue of civilians waiting at Dizengoff Circle on Sunday to donate blood for the emergency blood banks which have been established in the city. .

Seventy tourists from Britain also donated blood before leaving for home.

Civil defence preparations are being pushed forward. In Tel Aviv, 12,000 volunteers, including school children, joined in digging trenches and filling sandbags.

In the UK "500 volunteers, including 100 non-Jews w(ill) be leaving London shortly to take over civilian jobs in Israel left vacant by Israelis called up for armed service, reported The Jewish Chronicle. In Stockholm between 200 and 250 Swedes are ready to leave for Israel, including, it is reported, some formers members of the Swedish contingent with the United Nations Emergency Force in the Gaza Strip." Elsewhere in the Jewish Chronicle there was a full page advertisement headed "EMERGENCY APPEAL TO BRITISH JEWS", with the signatories including Britain's Chief Rabbi and Haham. The text included: "Israel is in mortal danger; she stands encircled by enemies who declare their intent to destroy her. This is an appeal to every Jew in the country...to stand by the people of Israel. The Jews of Israel are ready to pay for their country with their lives; the Jews of Britain must show that they are ready to make a sacrifice too."

"Pupils at Carmel College responded to an emergency appeal for Israel and raised a considerable sum of money. They have unanimously asked the school authorities to give them bread and water for at least one meal so that the money could be devoted to Israel."

"The Making of a Martyr," a film by Brooke Goldstein spent the summer of 2004 in the West Bank interviewing suicide bombers' families and children, who aspire to "martyrdom", will screen as part of the Brooklyn International Film Festival today and Tuesday.

Read Heather Robinson's article about the film in the New York Sun - it makes chilling reading.

"I was thinking, ‘You know, there's a legal argument here that no one is making, which is that the suicide bomber himself — 18 and under — is as much a victim as the Israeli civilians being killed."

Friday, June 01, 2007

"Brethren and sons, this is the day of the battle to avenge our martyred brethren who fell in 1948. It is the day to wash away the stigma. We shall, God willing, meet in Tel Aviv and Haifa” - Radio broadcast by Iraqi President Abdel Rahman Aref - 11.00 GMT June 1st 1967, Baghdad Domestic Service in Arabic , Foreign Broadcast Information Service.

"Those who survive will remain in Palestine. I estimate that none of them will survive.” - Ahmed Shukairy, chairman of PLO in Jordanian Jerusalem, asked in news interview what will happen to the Israelis if there is a war.

Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister of Israel, sent message to Russian Premiere Kosygin: "When the organs of Arab propaganda raised the contention that Israel is concentrating forces in order to attack Syria, I invited your Ambassador in Israel to visit the frontier to find out for himself that there was no truth in this allegation. To my regret, the Ambassador did not respond to our invitation. The Chief of Staff of the UNTSO checked these claims and informed the Secretary-General of the UN and the capitals of the region that there were no Israel concentrations on the Syrian border. The Secretary-General even included a statement to this effect in the Report he submitted on May 19th to the Security Council".

GERMANY TO SEND GAS MASKS Bonn: The German Cabinet decided unanimously tonight to agree to Israel’s request for 20,000 gas masks for use in case of an Arab attack. A spokesman said it was "a humanitarian measure", not a delivery of war material to the Middle East.

Professor Uriel Reichman, President of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, has responded to the decision by a small number of members of the British University and College Union to boycott Israeli academe as "a modern reformulation of Judenreine" a German expression used by the Nazis meaning "Jew free," describing areas they had emptied of a Jewish presence [Haaretz].

The professor's language might be considered extreme but there is little doubt that a gang of British teachers has joined their counterparts in journalism to discriminate against Israel at the worst of all possible times. The attack on Israel comes at the end of a month of viscious internal brawling between factions of the ruling Hamas and opposition Fatah which has left almost 100 dead, an escalation in the firing of rockets by Palestinians at Israeli civilian areas killing two, traumatising Sderot and disrupting normal life in the town, a time in which a monsterous propaganda campaign has been uncovered in which Hamas party is indoctrinating the minds of its children. All the while, Hamas continues point blank to refuse to recognise Israel, let alone negotiate peace or an end to the "occupation" of the West Bank.

The entire concept of a boycott is questionable and will do nothing to further the cause of peace between Israel and the Palestinians as long as British academics and journalists enjoy overdosing on hatred of the Jewish State as their own form of moral masturbation. Such boycotts not only are ineffective - they are simply counterproductive and shames all of British academia.

Michael Yudkin put it well in an article entitled "Is an Academic Boycott of Israel Justified?" in Democratiya:-

"It is a good deal easier to make grand gestures than to engage with the complexities of so intractable a problem as the conflict between Israel and her neighbours.".

Of course this begs the question whether the boycotters are interested in the conflict or its resolution at all. Their irresponsible conduct and discrimination against one side not only in this conflict but of all of the conflicts raging around the world is the stuff that would have Oswald Mosley doing cartwheels in his grave.

A MAN OF HONOUR

Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has withdrawn from a planned trip to Englan in July because of what he perceives to be "a widespread anti-Israel and anti-semitic current in British opinion". [Guardian]